Ghosts will live in umbrellas, I don't know which dynasty and which generation started this statement, but the custom of making Qingming umbrellas on Qingming Festival has been spread for a long time in northwest Zhejiang. In short, I have been taught since I was a child that there are a few things that I picked up outside and don't take home, and umbrellas are one of them.

This is a black umbrella, foreign cloth, the surface is somewhat damaged, the umbrella bone at that time was much heavier than now, but that umbrella is the heaviest I have ever held in my life. Knowing that there is a ghost in the umbrella in his hand, it will not be easy to change to anyone. The snow in the yard was still falling, and everywhere was bright and white, adding more sadness to this sad day, I walked in the snow, looking back at the fat man pulling there, a frozen corpse still maintaining the expression of life.

Thinking of Shangqingxiang a few days ago, my eldest cousin was still laughing, maybe he would never have thought that he would one day follow in his father's footsteps.

I saw that the fat man's movements were a little rude, and there were enough strange things tonight, so I was afraid that he would make some kind of moths again, so I reminded: "Be careful, don't get it up later." ”

Cha Wenbin lowered his head softly and said, "No, the soul is no longer here." His voice was soft, as if he was talking to himself, and I don't know why he was so depressed, but when he came back this time, I saw more of a dodge in his eyes, as if he was looking for something, and running away from something, and he talked less than ever.

The fat man picked up the corpse with his arm, I saw that he was also very heavy, and they all said that people will become heavier when they die, and on a snowy night, when the fat man spoke, his throat went straight to the white smoke: "Come on, get it into the coffin?" ”

"Put it in, get some firewood and burn it."

I said, "Is that appropriate?" Our ancestors have been buried in this land for generations. ”

"Bury it when it's done, and after tonight, you'll have to bury it again tomorrow, and by then it's too late, unless you call someone back and continue to carry it."

I knew it would be impossible to get back those who had been scared away, not enough cigarettes and alcohol. People, at the last moment, understand that nothing is as important as their own lives, and in the end, no one will do the business of taking wine and drinking.

In the countryside at that time, there were earthen stoves, and every household had stored firewood, and we bundled the good dry firewood out of the thatched house, and built a platform with the snow. The coffin was placed on the firewood, Cha Wenbin went into the house again to find some kerosene to sprinkle, a match crossed, the sky-high fire began to burn, and the "crackling" sound was like his last goodbye to this land.

My eldest cousin would never have predicted that he would be such a scene after his death, no one was funeral, no one was crying, and no one even burned the paper. Before his death, he was flying and arrogant, and he ended up with no corpse after his death, I have to say, people, sometimes they really have to accumulate some yin virtue for themselves.

The fire burned for a full hour, and the wisps of black smoke and the scattered ashes could no longer distinguish which was the path to the underworld. Finally, I pulled out a few recognizable bones and let the fat man break them one by one with the back of a hoe, and then found a broom and dustpan in their yard to collect the residues, and I went into the house and asked my cousin and grandmother for a jar, and the kind of jar used to make pickles in the countryside poured all the bones into it.

Cha Wenbin went outside to dig up some thin mud, and then used the leaves of the bamboo to stick to the mouth of the altar, and then sealed it again with thin mud and some rice husks, and we were done with this work.

I looked at the time, and it was a quarter of twelve.

"Do you want to send it up the mountain?" I asked.

Cha Wenbin looked up at the sky where he couldn't see his fingers and said, "Don't send it, it's too late, there is a pine and cypress in their vegetable garden, just bury it there." ”

I asked him what this meant, and he said that it was probably to remind future generations not to break this jar if they dug it, because it contained ashes.

I didn't laugh at the sauerkraut jar, originally I despised this man very much, but when the fat man threw it into the dirt pit like garbage, I suddenly felt that he was really pathetic. People live for a lifetime, plants and trees for autumn, time and the past are just floating clouds and dogs for people, and white horses pass through the gaps.

On the way back, the two of us braved the wind and snow to be silent all the way, but the fat man kept chattering alone, and I didn't bother to pay attention to him.

"Wen Bin." Suddenly shouted at him.

"Huh?"

"Let's go to the United States."

"Why?" He asked.

I stopped, turned to look at him, and looking at his melancholy eyes, I remembered the man, the innocent, romantic and beautiful elf.

"Go find her."

Cha Wenbin didn't answer, he just paused and smiled at the corner of his mouth, and then he walked forward alone.

Looking at his distant back, the fat man knocked on me and asked, "What are you doing in the United States, do you know American?" ”

"I don't understand." I patted the fat man on the shoulder and said, "We don't understand Cantonese, it's very good to mix, maybe the broken ** Japan and Taiwan in the United States are stronger." ”

The fat man looked very happy, and laughed: "Haha, good boy, our rag business is going to be global, and I will be the biggest rag king in the world in the future!" **Teach us that US imperialism is nothing but paper tigers, let us revolutionary enthusiasts born under the red flag and grow up in New China kill the Pacific Ocean and sweep away their rags! I must treat their rags like the autumn wind sweeping away the leaves, without mercy, haha! ”

At that time, going to the United States was a very distant thing, different education, different beliefs, different outlooks on life and values, but going to the other side of the ocean in that era can be described as elites, the real backbone of society. Just after the Cultural Revolution, we were still arguing over all kinds of food stamps and meat stamps, and a black-and-white TV had to be relied upon, and it had already entered the computer age. Fortunately, the two countries have just mended their relations, and the United States has also set off a wave of research on the Orient, especially China's ancient culture, which Yuan Xiaobai said in a letter.

Things are far from being as simple as I thought, at least for Cha Wenbin.

According to the inquiry, I also have a cousin-in-law's funeral is not so smooth, their home is more than 100 kilometers away from our Hong Village, belongs to the jurisdiction of another county, the next day I heard my old man say that the disturbance there is not less than our here.

When we talked about it at dinner, we asked my dad, "What's wrong with that uncle?" ”

"They went out for the funeral this morning, and they also heard that there was such a stubble on your side, and they decided temporarily, saying that they shouldn't put more money at home for a day. A few relatives over there went, and they came back and said that the person was gone, saying that he was dead and put it on the ** to cover, I wanted to wait until the seventh day of the first month to mourn, but it has not moved, and I went back to take a look, **There was no one on it, and the body was gone. ”

The fat man took a sip of wine and said, "Fake corpses? ”

"Who knows, in the end, I found it, but it's quite mysterious. Their family is a big family, there is an ancestral hall, there were three generations of Xiucai during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Xiaoyi should still have an impression, I took you there when I was twelve years old. ”

I really remember when my father mentioned this, their village is called Zhuangyuan Village, and my cousin-in-law's surname is Zhou, and half of the population of that village has this surname. I remember that their village is very different, all of them are Hui style buildings, with white walls, black tiles, and every house has a horse-head wall, with a two-story structure of bricks and wood. My cousin's husband's family used to be a big family, with seven or eight rooms, and then it was liberated and confiscated and four rooms were allocated to his family.

This week, children are not allowed to play in the ancestral hall, I went that year because my cousin married, I followed as a woman's relative, my cousin and grandfather were still there at that time, and the relationship between our families was okay. A few cousins and I were hanging out in their village, and as we were wandering, we came to the ancestral hall, and the door was open. Children always like to do some strange things, and I am no exception, I saw a pair of stone lions at the gate and looked in the crack of the door, and the center was an incense burner, and one day there was a well, surrounded by houses.

There were no doors in the rooms, and there were strips of yellow and red cloth hanging in them, and we children slipped into them, and then I only remember that the adults didn't take pictures until it was dark, and I almost didn't let my father beat me to death for that.

Of course, adults won't believe what children say.

I was having a lot of fun with a few children in that ancestral hall, why? Because there are a lot of people in the ancestral hall, there are more than 100 people in the ancestral hall, men and women, old and young, push the door and look in only to find that there is another singing play, there is a troupe singing "Mu Guiying is in charge", how can there be better than the play in those years, a few of our children are crowded, after watching a play, I don't know if I forgot to drink the happy wine.

But it's more lively here, there are wine, meat and pastries on the side, you want to eat it yourself, you want to drink it yourself. For the first time, I felt like I had come across a welfare home, and life here was so beautiful, and we children were having fun, and those people were smiling, and I remember sitting in the middle of the house. The clothes they wore were very strange, they were all black gowns, embroidered with the word "Shou" pattern, and Mu Gui on the stage was handsome and danced even better.

I clapped my hands with those people, and when the adults came to me, I seemed to be asleep, and it was pitch black all around, and the drama was gone. As I was leaving, my dad pulled me out by the ear, and I glanced back and saw that all the rooms were filled with coffins......

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The first update